By the end of the 1980s, the U.S. was the world’s greatest superpower and very wealthy; but, paradoxically, despite growing prosperity (more people were in the stock market than in previous periods of economic growth), the increased wealth was not wide-spread. Poverty resulted in a new phenomenon of the homeless. Legions of homeless, mostly addicted and AIDS-ridden, boiled over into the emergency rooms and shelters, prompting The New York Times to run a series of pieces on “The New Calcutta.” (AIDS is covered in the main part of the Songbook.)
The economic “paradox” of the Reagan years was demonstrated by numerous studies of income distribution, real wages, poverty, hunger, infant mortality, and other social indices. “[M]ost Americans are working longer hours for lower wages and considerably less security,” and “the vast majority” are “in many ways worse off” than in the late 1970s. From 1987, real wages declined even for the college educated. “Poverty rates were high by historic standards,” and “those in poverty in 1989 were significantly poorer than the poor in 1979.” A congressional report released in 1991 estimated that hunger has grown by 50 percent since the mid-1980s to some 30 million people. Other studies showed that one of eight children under 12 suffered from hunger, a problem that reappeared in 1982 after having been overcome by government programs from the 1960s. Two researchers report that in New York, the proportion of children raised in poverty more than doubled to 40 percent, while nationwide, “the number of hungry American children grew by 26 percent” as aid for the poor shrank during “the booming 1980s “. (https://www.powells.com/book/bonfire-of-the-vanities-9780553275971)
In addition to drugs and AIDS, domestic policies of the Reagan Administration contributed to the “street people” phenomenon. Reagan people were much less likely to be sympathetic to the down and out. One of the members of the Administration said the homeless needed the “spur of their poverty” (George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty (1980)), to motivate them to raise themselves out of their situation. (Hakim, 486) Reagan responded to a reporter’s question during the 1984 presidential campaign by referring to “the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.” The number of homeless people by the late 1980s had swollen to 600,000 on any given night – and 1.2 million over the course of a year. Many were Vietnam veterans, children and laid-off workers.
Welfare cuts, including Medicaid, food stamps, and federal education programs, in favor of military spending were part of Reagan Administration budgets. (See, “The Reagan Administration’s Budget Cuts: Their Impact on the Poor”, by Sheldon Danziger and Robert Haveman, https://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc52b.pdf ) The fiscal 1982 budget that was proposed by Reagan represented a reduction of $44 billion, or 5.7% – all categories except national defense were reduced. Over half of the $44 billion budget reduction came from two areas: income security; and education, training, employment, and social services. For example, the decision on the part of the Department of Health and Human Services not to fund a center for poverty research was an indication of the Reagan administration’s shift in national priorities. And, deep cuts were planned for programs designed for the poor and near poor-such as AFDC, Food Stamps, Medicaid, education aid, Low-Income Energy Assistance, and training and employment programs. Other major spending cuts affecting the poor were made in federal housing assistance programs, social services, and community services, school lunch programs, compensatory education and emergency energy assistance.
By the end of Reagan’s term in office federal assistance to local governments was cut 60 percent. Reagan eliminated general revenue sharing to cities, slashed funding for public service jobs and job training, almost dismantled federally funded legal services for the poor, cut the anti-poverty Community Development Block Grant program and reduced funds for public transit. The only “urban” program that survived the cuts was federal aid for highways—which primarily benefited suburbs, not cities. These cutbacks had a disastrous effect on cities with high levels of poverty and limited property tax bases, many of which depended on federal aid. In 1980, federal dollars accounted for 22 percent of big city budgets. By the end of Reagan’s second term, federal aid was only 6 percent.
The most dramatic cut in domestic spending during the Reagan years was for low-income housing subsidies. Reagan appointed a housing task force dominated by politically connected developers, landlords and bankers. In 1982, the task force released a report that called for “free and deregulated” markets as an alternative to government assistance – advice Reagan followed. In his first year in office Reagan halved the budget for public housing and Section 8 to about $17.5 billion. And, for the next few years he sought to eliminate federal housing assistance to the poor altogether.
Going to the question of whether homelessness was caused by mental health or was economic or some other factor, studies (See, Baxter and Hopper, the first researchers to study this new population) revealed that only about a third of the homeless population was mentally ill and that a diverse group of people experienced homelessness.
“When it started, it was looked at as an emergency phenomenon, something that was going to pass … a phenomenon of high unemployment and families that weren’t able to maintain a house and a car payment,” Feinstein told the Chronicle in 1987. “It’s emerged into a whole subculture. A potpourri of many different things. Everything from frail elderly to drug abusers to alcoholics to women with children to single men to AIDS victims to the mentally ill … and that’s a direct result of Ronald Reagan’s policies. This new wave of needy was different. Instead of the single men with drinking problems who’d populated the hotels and alleys of South of Market after World War II, there were factory and office workers who had lost their jobs in the recent global recession slumped in doorways next to Vietnam War veterans. There were women, children, families.” (Baxter and Hopper)
These findings suggested that homelessness was a complex issue, partly directly related to untreated mental illness and deinstitutionalization of mental patients, e.g. “Greyhound therapy,” in which mental hospitals in various states discharged patients with a ticket for a Greyhound bus trip to California, and substance abuse in many but not the majority of cases, and that policies and programs addressing homelessness needed to consider people’s needs for housing as well as services.
The dwindling clusters of grizzled, single, white, older alcoholic men who had historically circulated between flophouses and missions in the nation’s Skid Rows had seemingly been replaced by a more diverse population that included more women, more African Americans, more young people, and a substantial number of people suffering from serious mental illness. In addition, unlike most Skid Row denizens, many in this new homeless population were sleeping out on the streets. “There was a concentration of women, and men too, in Grand Central Station, Penn Station, [the] Port Authority [bus terminal], and throughout the public subway system and the well-lit streets of the East Side,” Baxter recollected in an interview (interview with Ellen Baxter, September 12, 2006). Nevertheless, officials of the Reagan administration questioned the need for a federal response to the problem. The Administration’s policy was to cut federal welfare benefits and “devolve” responsibility for meeting citizens’ needs from the federal government to states and localities.
Presidential aide Donald Clarey underlined the Administration’s view that homelessness was the fault of negligent states and individuals:
The whole question of the homeless, in my opinion, should be addressed from a different angle, namely, that well over 50 percent of these people are released mental patients and victims of terrible neglect by states (New York is by far the worst). Most of the others are alcoholics and drug abusers. Very few are there as a result of unemployment alone. These states have found it expedient to let them roam the streets with no supervision or support mechanisms because it is cheaper to put them on SSI (federal disability benefits). Most of the people who sleep on grates are eligible for SSI but probably don’t want to participate.
On Thanksgiving 1981, a Washington, DC–based group called the Community for Creative Nonviolence (CCNV) erected a tent encampment in Lafayette Park, across from the White House, to demonstrate solidarity with people thrust into homelessness. They called it “Reaganville,” a reference to the “Hoovervilles” that sprang up during the Great Depression.
In July 1987, a lame-duck President Reagan reluctantly signed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney Act), the first landmark piece of federal homelessness legislation. Although pushed through by a Democratic Congress, it was named for its chief Republican sponsor, Representative Stewart B. McKinney of Connecticut. This legislation included more than $1 billion in funds to dramatically expand an emergency shelter grant program administered by HUD; to create housing demonstration programs; and to fund health care, education, and job training for people experiencing homelessness. The HCHP, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), was awarded $44.5 million for 109 projects in 43 states to fund mental health, substance abuse, and physical health care services, and served more than 230,000 people in 1988 alone. The NIMH, NIAAA, and NIDA also were awarded funds for research demonstration projects on programs addressing mental illness, alcoholism, and drug abuse among homeless populations
Homelessness, (Is it all simply fate?), Peter Berryman , https://youtu.be/6rjYGnJRSio
I never dreamed I’d ever be,
Without a home to comfort me
‘Til a friend of mine this very Spring
Lost his whole house and everything.
So now I know that life is strange,
That all is luck and luck can change,
And don’t forget, it’s sad but true,
The next time around it could be you.One runaway truck,
One slip in the muck,
One stretch of bad luck,
Homelessness.One family feud,
One litigious old prude,
One long bad mood,
Homelessness.One toaster too hot,
One investment that’s not,
One tiny blood clot;
Homelessness.One decision on gin,
One paycheck too thin,
One dumb night of sin,
Homelessness.My poor old pal is on the street,
It’s extra sad ’cause he’s so sweet,
But even if he were a creep,
The lug should have a place to sleep.So anyway, it’s really true,
That the next time around it could be you,
And when you say, “how can it be?”
It could be worse, it could be me.One letter too strong,
One adventure gone wrong,
One sick-leave too long,
Homelessness.One knock on the door,
One slippery floor,
One nuclear war,
Homelessness.One slip of the pen,
One downsizing trend,
One back-stabbing friend,
Homelessness.One identity thief,
One flaky belief,
One slice of bad beef,
Homelessness.Once I did agree with you,
That fiscal plans make dreams come true,
Now I know that I was nuts,
That fate is king and fate’s a putz,But now I’d say that you’d be smart,
To squirrel away a shopping cart,
And if they ever change your locks,
Mi cardboard box, su cardboard box
My cardboard box, your cardboard box
Streets of London – Ralph McTell, (For me personally, no song paints the picture of the hopeless, down and out homeless than “Streets of London”) https://youtu.be/5Z91n5Vskjg
Have you seen the old man
In the closed down market
Kicking up the papers
With his worn-out shoes?In his eyes, you see no pride
Hand held loosely at his side
Yesterday’s paper
Telling yesterday’s newsSo, how can you tell me you’re lonely
And say for you that the sun don’t shine?
Let me take you by the hand
And lead you through the streets of London
Show you something to make you change your mindHave you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair
And her clothes in rags?She’s no time for talking
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home
In two carrier bagsSo, how can you tell me you’re lonely
And say for you that the sun don’t shine?
Let me take you by the hand
And lead you through the streets of London
Show you something to make you change your mindIn the all-night cafe
At a quarter past eleven
Same old man
Sitting there on his ownLooking at the world
Over the rim of his tea cup
Each tea lasts an hour
And he wanders home aloneSo, how can you tell me you’re lonely?
Don’t say for you that the sun don’t shine
Let me take you by the hand
And lead you through the streets of London
Show you something to make you change your mindHave you seen the old man
Outside the seaman’s mission
Memory fading with
The medal ribbons that he wears?In our winter city
The rain cries a little pity
For one more forgotten hero
And a world that doesn’t careSo, how can you tell me you’re lonely
And say for you that the sun don’t shine?
Let me take you by the hand
And lead you through the streets of London
I’ll show you something to make you change your mind
Another Day in Paradise, Phil Collins (in this 1989 pop ballad, a cold, homeless woman cries as she beckons a stranger for help. Obviously suffering, she has blisters on her feet and can’t walk. Rather than helping, however, the man does what is easy; he pretends not to hear her pleas, then whistles, and crosses the street to avoid her.) https://youtu.be/At9FypGZ44M
She calls out to the man on the street
“Sir, can you help me?
It’s cold and I’ve nowhere to sleep
Is there somewhere you can tell me?”He walks on, doesn’t look back
He pretends he can’t hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be thereOh, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you
You and me in paradiseThink about it
She calls out to the man on the street
He can see she’s been crying
She’s got blisters on the soles of her feet
She can’t walk but she’s tryingOh, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, it’s just another day for you
You and me in paradiseJust think about it
Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do?
Oh Lord, there must be something you can sayYou can tell from the lines on her face
You can see that she’s been there
Probably been moved on from every place
‘Cause she didn’t fit in thereOh, think twice, ’cause it’s another day for you and me in paradise
Oh, think twice, it’s just another day for you
You and me in paradiseJust think about it
Mhm
Think about itIt’s just another day for you and me in paradise
It’s just another day for you and me in paradise (para-paradise)
Paradise
Ooh, just think about it
Paradise
Just think about it (para-paradise)
Paradise
Mhmm, paradise
Paradise
Just another day
“Man on the Corner”—Genesis (This song is soul-touching and conveys the feeling of man’s desperation, leaving you with the sense of having been through it yourself. There are lyrics such as “nobody knows and nobody cares” and “there’s no hiding place for you and me.” Almost anyone can relate to that sentiment, and with the music projecting that emotion, it makes it a lot easier to sink into that feeling.) https://youtu.be/klbRqW2ukrc
See the lonely man there on the corner
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know
But he waits everyday now
He’s just waiting for something to showAnd nobody knows him
And nobody cares
‘Cause there’s no hiding place
There’s no hiding place for youLooking everywhere at no one
He sees everything and nothing at all, oh
When he shouts, nobody listens
Where he leads no one will go, ohHe’s a lonely man, there on the corner
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know
But he waits everyday now
And he’s just waiting for something to show, ohNobody knows him
And nobody cares
‘Cause there’s no hiding place
There’s no hiding place for you and meAre we just like all the rest?
We’re looking too hard for something he’s got
Or moving too fast to rest
But like a monkey on your back, you need it
But do you love it enough to leave it? AhJust like the lonely man there on the corner?
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know, oh
But he waits every day now
He’s just waiting for that something to show, ohWho’s the lonely man there on the corner?
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know
But he’s there every day now
And he’s just waiting for something to show, ohWho’s the lonely man there on the corner?
What he’s waiting for, I don’t know
Oh, but he waits every day now
He’s just waiting for that something to show
“Even Flow”—Pearl Jam (This song puts you in the day-to-day normal situations that someone who isn’t homeless wouldn’t know anything about. The lyrics to this song have elements of homelessness, e.g. a pillow made of concrete, the only heat is from being in the courthouse, etc.) https://youtu.be/FdIX36A8lMQ
Freezin’
Rests his head on a pillow made of concrete again
Oh, feelin’
Maybe he’ll see a little betters, any daysOh, hand out
Faces that he sees time again ain’t that familiar
Oh, dark grin
He can’t help, when he’s happy, he looks insaneEven flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don’t know, so he chases them away
Oh, someday yet he’ll begin his life again
Life again, life againKneelin’
Lookin’ through the paper though he doesn’t know to read
Oh, prayin’
Now to something that has never showed him anythingOh, feelin’
Understands the weather of the winter’s on its way
Oh, ceilings
Few and far between all the legal halls of shameEven flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don’t know, so he chases them away
Oh, someday yet he’ll begin his life again
Whispering hands gently lead him awayHim away, him away
Yeah, ooh, ah yeah, f*ck it upEven flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don’t know, so he chases them away
Ah, someday yet he’ll begin his life again
Whispering hands gently lead him awayHim away, him away
Yeah, ooh